A discussion between A discussion between KENNETH KAUNDA and COLIN MORRIS KENNETH KAUNDA KENNETH DAVID KAUNDA aged 36 is Northern Rhodesia's most controversial African Leader. He states his claim for Black Government. Is he the "black Mamba" of African Nationalism plotting violence behind a front of Ghandian passive resistance, or is he the "lion of the North" Central Africa's man of destiny and a Northern Rhodesian Nyerere? He makes the claim for "One Man one Vote", "Independence for Northern Rhodesia", "the break up of the Federation", "the power of non violent methods" for achieving his declared aims. The policy and programme of the United National Independence Party is set forth and argued with unusual clarity and force. One may disagree fundamentally with Kaunda, but one cannot dismiss him as a selfish politician lusting for power. Northern News Photograph. Colin Morris, Merfyyn Temple and Kenneth Kaunda preparing "Black Government" in February 1960. BLACK GOVERNMENT? A DISCUSSION BETWEEN COLIN MORRIS AND KENNETH KA UNDA UNITED SOCIETY FOR CHRISTIAN LITERATURE LUSAKA, NORTHERN- RHODESIA 1960 Printed by Rhodesian Printers Ltd., Monterey Avenue, Ndola, Northern Rhodesia CONTENTS Foreword Sir Stewart Gore-Browne V Preface Merfyn M. Temple 1 Chapter L Profile Kenneth Kaunda Merfyn M. Temple 3 2. Profile Colin Morris Merfyn M. Temple 23 DISCUSSION Kenneth Kaunda and Colin Morris 3. "We want a colour blind Society" 41 4. "We want Freedom of Speech and Movement" 57 5. "We want one man one vote" 67 6. "We want an end to Federation" 78 7. "The Future of African Nationalism" 92 S. Conclusion 111 FOREWORD I have been asked to write a foreword to "Black Government". I have not had an opportunity to read the book, nor do I know the Reverend Colin Morris personally. But I have known Mr. Kaunda, and admired his sterling character, for many years. If anything I can write or say can help him in the task he has undertaken, I am only too glad to try and do so. For myself, I have known Northern Rhodesia for all but fifty years. My home, and the home of my children, and my grandchildren, is here. In a Christmas Day address last year the people said: "We thank Sir Stewart, and we think he thanks us too, to reach this year while still working together fraternally. There is nothing which we people have blamed him, and neither does Sir Stewart himself blame us." That is indeed true, and as it should be. But what of the future? There is no need to panic, but is it not clear to anyone whose head is not buried in the facile sands of optimism that Northern Rhodesia is about to be faced with a crisis compared to which troubles and set-becks of the last half-century are the merest trifles? Is not the situation here today something like the situation in Britain in the years just before the passing of the Great Reform Bill in 1832, when the conflict was between Privilege and the People, and when failure to reach a successful conclusion would have meant revolution? The problem in Northern Rhodesia today has become a psychological one, and pointing to the undoubted prosperity and material progress of recent years will not solve it. What Africans are demanding with no uncertain voice is what the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Nehru, calls "The Fourth Freedom; Freedom from Contempt". Waiting four years, or even a year, before we do anything about it is not merely futile, it is dangerous. Myself, I agree, fundamentally, with Mr. Kaunda that the first objective today must be the granting of a genuinely liberal franchise on a common roll basis. Such a franchise must confer equal voting powers on equal terms for both races, without any disingenuous catches or strings attached to it. The present franchise with it's provisions for devaluing votes which appear dangerous to the dominant race, requiring the consent of Chiefs for the nomination of individual Africans, (imagine Richard Cobden having to obtain the consent of an early nineteenth century House of Lords before he could stand for Parliament), is neither fair nor just. It's replacement by a franchise which was both would go a long way towards restoring that confidence between races which has been lost of late years, but which is so necessary if we are, all of us, to live in peace and prosperity. If granting such franchise leads to an African majority in the Legislature, no matter. What does matter is delay. Finally, those of us who know Mr. Kaunda feel sure we can trust him. He is certainly not a careerist nor a would-be dictator, still less a terrorist. But that does not mean that we minimise the difficulties and dangers that lie before any leader striving to follow a straight path today. We can only hope, and pray, that he will be given strength as well as wisdom to accomplish his task. Shiwa Ngandu, STEWART GORE-BROWN. Northern Rhodesia. 29/4/60. ILLUSTRATIONS Colin Morris, Kenneth Kaunda and Merfyn Temple preparing "Black Government?" Kenneth Kaunda addresses a meeting Colin Morris in his pulpit Notice outside the Chingola Free Church, Northern Rhodesia, of which Rev. Colin Morris is Minister. Kenneth Kaunda Frontispiece facing 16 facing 32 facing 48 facing 96 PREFACE Mr. Harold Macmillan the British Prime Minister speaking to both Houses of Parliament in Cape Town on Feb. 3rd. 1960 said: "The wind of change is blowing through the continent. The most striking of all the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of national consciousness. Whether we like it or not, this growth is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact. This means, I would judge that we must come to terms with it. I sincerely believe that if we cannot do so, we may imperil the precarious balance between East and West on which the peace of the world depends." These words have taken some time to sink into our consciousness here in Northern Rhodesia. There are still many who do not heed the warning, though recent events in the Union of South Africa are hammering home their truth. That the peace of the world may be imperiled by our failure to come to terms with African nationalism should surely give us pause for thought. This small book has been produced with one purpose in view; that is to help all of us, African, Asian, European and Eurafrican to accept the political fact of the rising tide of African national consciousness. So urgent did some of us feel this need to be, that at the risk of being seriously misunderstood, we set out BLACK GOVERNMENT ? with our meagre resources of time, and talent, and money to produce a book which would not only present the case of the Northern Rhodesian African Nationalist, but subject it to rigorous analysis. Speed was the essence of this project, and we had no time to gather a mass of evidence, nor to consult a wide variety of opinion, so taking a calculated risk we asked two men who were themselves deeply involved in our political situation to write in a matter of hours what they both would have preferred to set down over a period of weeks or months. No one is more conscious than we are of this book's shortcomings, its wide gaps, its over simplification of intricate problems, but we hope that what it lacks in perspective and balance it makes up for by its immediacy, what defects appear in the polish of its prose it makes up for in the rough authenticity of its dialogue. Though of necessity this is a hurried book, for events march swiftly in Central Africa today, we believe it can be used, if read widely during this crucial year of 1960 to enable men and women to face without fear the political realities of our time. We hope especially it will be read by African Nationalists themselves enabling them to understand that on the journey to the "Canaan of their dreams" they would do well to heed the voice of the christian churches of this land. Even after Colin Morris and Kenneth Kaunda had agreed to meet we should have made little progress without the enthusiastic co-operation of our typists, our Printer, and a gift of money from the London Committee of the United Society for Christian Literature. We acknowledge with gratitude the help we have received from the Editors of the "Northern News" and "African Mail", also permission to quote from "Partnership" published by S.C.M. and "The Ridley Report". Our thanks are given too to all those Africans and Europeans who gave the information contained in the brief profiles of our two authors. CHAPTER ONE Profile of Kenneth Kaunda BY MERFYN M. TEMPLE Mr. John Gaunt, at one time a District Commissioner, now Northern Rhodesia's most powerful white politician, has a reputation for speaking his mind. At a meeting attended by a thousand of Lusaka's European community he said, after comparing Mr. Julius Nyerere .and Dr. Banda with Adolf Hitler: "They tell us to come to terms with the black Nationalists. Pah! we might as well come to terms with a black mamba." ,Criticising Kenneth Kaunda for wearing a toga at -public meetings he remarked: "The only kind of nationalist dress I came across in this country was the loin cloth." Mr. John Roberts, the leader of the United Federal Party in the Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council, on March 2nd, gave public warning against the dangers -of power hungry African politicians who were claiming independence for Northern Rhodesia in 1960.